Abstract:
The HEED (Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions of) Global Change Program, a 3-year effort funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Global Programs and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has developed a systematic methodology for collecting morbidity and mortality occurrence data, across a range of species. A ... comprehensive survey of instances of marine ecological disturbance, and a methodology for future Major marine ecological disturbances (MMED) investigation, is desired by international, federal and state agencies in their efforts to better understand the changes occurring in the world's oceans. Our approach draws together the expertise of over 15 separate disciplines, organizes historic data in one standard format, assesses the integrity and coverage of data, and provides a method for future standardized data collection and analysis. Events within this morbidity and mortality database serve as (eco)indicators of ecologically and economically significant disturbances. The overall framework enables the assessment of marine ecosystem health.

In our initial study area, which includes the Western North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico, recognized major marine ecological disturbances (MMEDs) have increased during the last 30 years. We have tracked those changes and are attempting to characterize patterns within our data-sets. The HEED Global Change Program provides researchers, interested in testing hypotheses, with six data-sets and a framework to explore factors (e.g., climate, pollution, trophodynamic shifts) that may be contributing to MMEDs. The methods that we have developed can be scaled up to the level of global assessment.

4) Base-line Ecosystem Datasets: Chlorophyll biomass, plankton abundance and diversity, dynamics and life history for benthic and pelagic species, and their organization in trophodynamic guilds for particular places over time.

5) Economic Database: NMFS fisheries statistics, FEMA and SBA requests for assistance, and other economic and social costs of morbidity and mortality events. Case studies include Pfiesteria, Summer, 1997.

Our data depicts a geographic expansion and overall increase in MMEDs, over the last several decades - including unprecedented events, and disturbances of increasing severity. These have had, in some cases, significant human health and economic impacts. Increased understanding of MMEDs, through the use of the tracking methodology described here, provides a justification and basis for a rapid response to public health risks and threats to ecosystems. For more information, see: http://www.med.harvard.edu/chge/textbook/index.htm